1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of dialog creation and execution, and, more specifically, to a system and method for dialog caching.
2. Background of the Invention
Companies frequently need to communicate with millions of customers, hereinthroughout also referred to as recipients. Methods used to develop messages intended to reach this recipient population historically were manual in nature. Over time, certain automated technologies emerged that automated these types of communications, including bulk mailing, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and, more recently, Web technology and email.
IVR technology enabled automated and interactive dialogs between companies and customers. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems were developed in the 1960s. The first IVR systems allowed a recipient to call a number, be presented with voice prompts, and enter data in response to those prompts using the dial on the telephone.
A number of innovations followed, including the use of dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) tones for providing recipient input, and integration with speech synthesis mechanisms that combined pre-recorded words into phrases. Initially IVR systems were standalone systems. Over time, IVR capabilities were added to PBXes, and eventually to central office switches.
Speech recognition capabilities eventually progressed to the point where speech recognition could be successfully integrated with IVR systems to provide recipients with a more “natural” means by which to interact with a system in simple scenarios, such as wherein yes/no answers would suffice. Eventually, computers have become sufficiently powerful that general word recognition may be used in IVR systems.
Professional services have been offered to develop applications that allowed enterprises to accept calls from recipients, and to guide those recipients through increasingly complex transactions. Enterprises now provide a wide range of services to recipients without the recipient ever having to interact with a human operator. However, the development of IVR systems currently requires technically knowledgeable computer programmers to build interactive dialogs and to integrate those dialogs into an operating telephony delivery environment.
Automated dialog creation usually involves detailed and laborious programming. Often this involves programmatically linking different technologies through computer programming, and building decision logic and scheduling algorithms, in a piece-meal mode. This may require multiple individuals with different technical domain knowledge (i.e. telephony, IVR development, Web development, database development). Although progress has been made to reduce the time it takes to develop and deploy such systems, this process remains inflexible, complex, and therefore expensive.
VXML, short for Voice Extensible Markup Language, allows a user to interact with the Internet through voice-recognition technology, and has helped alleviate some of the problems of the complexities involved in programming for voice systems. Instead of a traditional browser, which relies on a combination of interactions with HTML via a keyboard and mouse, VXML relies on a voice browser and/or the telephone. VoiceXML builds a voice application without reliance upon proprietary techniques, but rather leverages the standards-based infrastructure similar to the standards-based infrastructure used to build Web sites. Using VXML, the user may interact with a voice browser by, for example, listening to audio output that is pre-recorded or computer-synthesized, and may submit audio input through the user's natural speaking voice, or through a keypad, such as a telephone. Applying a standard to the development of speech applications has allowed increased efficiencies in programming and speed of implementation, but has not unburdened the paradigm of development, i.e. the programmer.
However, even in light of the advances discussed hereinabove, the automated dialogs systems currently available fail to provide a system and method for enabling business users to develop computer code to generate and deploy interactive dialogs through an easy-to-use graphic user interface, that can be delivered by different media types (calls, Web pages, letter surveys, text), a system and method for enabling a business user to control the level of authentication required in order to deliver a given interactive dialog, a system and method for defining visually the content of an automated dialog, a scheduling and resource allocation mechanism that enables the system to place scheduled dialogs according to the availability of resources, a policy engine enabling the business user to prescribe what action the system should take should the recipient not be reached and to prescribe how many recipients should be contacted at a time, and a transactional data collection and display mechanism.
Therefore, the need exists for a system and method of reducing traffic and providing more efficient data handling for automated dialogs and the resulting data.